The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday maintained its global growth forecast at 3.5% for 2017 and 3.6% for 2018.
Its latest World Economic Outlook update, published on Monday, shows economic activity in both advanced economies and emerging and developing economies accelerating this year to 2% and 4.6% respectively.
However, the 2018 growth forecast has been revised 0.1 percentage point downwards to 1.9% for advanced economies and an unchanged 4.8% for emerging economies.
However, the report highlights the fact that, while projected global growth rates for 2017/18 are higher than the 3.2% estimated for 2016, they remain below pre-crisis averages, particularly for the most advanced economies and for commodity-exporting developing economies.
The update revised the growth forecast of the US downwards from 2.3% to 2.1% in 2017 and from 2.5% to 2.1% in 2018, while China’s growth is expected to remain at 6.7% in 2017, the same level as in 2016, with a moderate decline to 6.4% in 2018.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the outlook remains challenging, the IMF pointed out.
“Growth is projected to rise in 2017 and 2018, but will barely return to positive territory in per capita terms this year for the region as a whole – and would remain negative for about a third of the countries in the region,” it explained.
“The slight upward revision to 2017 growth relative to the April forecast reflects a modest upgrading of growth prospects for South Africa, which is experiencing a bumper crop due to better rainfall and an increase in mining output prompted by a moderate rebound in commodity prices.
“However, the outlook for South Africa remains difficult, with elevated political uncertainty and weak consumer and business confidence, and the country’s growth forecast was consequently marked down to 1.2% for 2018,” IMF outlined in the July update.